What are the psychological implications of a good driver when they are on foot and not controlling the vehicle?
When I first got my license (about 5 years back) I had taken up jobs as a delivery boy. Even before the license I’d been screwing around with the car on my own on the open road.
Anyway, the reward of being a really good delivery driver–especially driving under the conditions of Miami traffic i.e. old people, insurance-less immigrants, risky rich people, etc–is usually a good tip at the end of the day.
So I drove hard and fast, without incident with the result of a better than average tip (average=, optimal=+). In another delivery job during freshman college, four hours averaged me 0 (although the Boca Raton area provide richer-than-usual clientele).
In order to be a good driver, I had learned my car’s physics, memorized routes (and more importantly, improvised shortcuts), anticipated traffic patterns and driver behavior (and knowing how to trick drivers into allowing me a coveted position on a four lane road), optimized hand positions on the wheel (although driving an automatic is not hard at all, hand placement on the wheel for an upcoming turn is important), I was always aware of my vehicle’s body and surroundings, sped excessively (within reason; slow down when approaching a blind turn/hill, and by understanding braking power, areas of foliage, the general environment, and blind spots behind OTHER drivers where cops can pop out of nowhere, fuzzy logic helped maintain optimal speed with just enough room to brake within the speed limit), was able to control my music player without looking at the road or the mirrors, and improvise routes by looking ahead at least 100 yards into the planned route and any obstacles that could minimize my tip, et cetera…
Anyway, I read somewhere that many London taxi drivers, because of their keen driving abilities, are somewhat autistic in the sense that in order to process all of that quickened information that human’s were originally not adapted to, their hippocampus have grown larger than the average driver.
It was only today that I found an answer to why I’m a little awkward when I communicate with words–not to mention understanding the different metaphors of many spoken dialects/accents in South Florida–but why ladies love to gawk and have fun with me regardless; I’m a behaviorist to the core although I always thought I was spiritual in nature.
I’ve always tried to find an introspective answer to everything because I thought I lacked a clear psychological understanding of the world that every functioning person inherently has but now that I think about it, the sped up processing of all the variable that can go on when one hits the road is NUMEROUS.
Every ‘functioning’ (for society) person has an unconscious understanding of behavior. And those behaviors we find on the road are analogous to pedestrians but find a lack of similarity since the information on the road hits us way faster than information that hits us while ‘on foot.’
I know that to be a good driver, one should not always heed to the superficial ‘nanny state’ of the road and the ‘nanny’ etiquette to driving; it should be instinct.
But my question is what are the implications of what one utilized off the road after having driven for hours?
I’ve played a chess game at school once, realized I would run late if I stalled any further on the game, won the game, and sped through traffic to destination in the nick of time (where rush hour traffic on a 8 lane road would normally take 25 minutes to get to work, I had made it to Chopstix in 10…the lesson being, the cognitive effects of playing chess prepped me into anticipating the driver’s behavior when I had to race to work in time).
Now if there are psychological underpinnings that are transferred from pedestrian to moving vehicle (like if one is mad, one hits the road aggressively or if one is sad, they are unfocused, or if suicidal before getting behind the wheel, then they could be reckless when the hit the road), what are the implications of a pedestrian who has just left behind the wheel after hours of driving in urban traffic?
Personally, my attention is always calculated, body movements are optimized, and reaction to other people plays off of body language more than what they say (although i think that’s just a part of metaphorical insight a second-gen immigrant should maintain…)
——————–
truly long, i’m sorry, i’m a 21yr old undergrad and aiming for a doctoral…
miami conditions cont’d…..driving during hurricanes, tropical storms, I-95 haha
Oh yeah, and my dad had been a taxi driver back in the philippines (manila) not to mention a big time dope dealer/gang leader (more of a ‘middle man’ who was good at communications and marketing) but thats another story….
…btw i think im autistic b/c of my driving (although i try to optimize my understanding of the human condition since having taken care of a cancer patient and consequently seeing her die…)…
but yeah i tend to be wordy but i hope these words come across as thoughtful.
and before the temporary license, naturally my father drove me around (and I guess I’ve inherited his driving behavior lol)
Remember, when a someone enters a state of a moving vehicle, information easily overloads our brain’s naturally evolved abilities.
oh yeah, also, since there is an increased rate of movement, there is an increasingly faster gratification of achieving said goals/destination than earlier man’s rate of movement limited by horses, walking, even early industries 10 hp vehicles…
